Beekeepers in New York City no longer have to keep the honey of their labors a secret. The city’s Board of Health decided Tuesday to allow beekeeping in the city after a long ban. Some New Yorkers have secretly tended beehives on rooftops and in backyard gardens for years in defiance of city regulations. The health code had placed honeybees in the same category as other creatures that are deemed too dangerous or venomous for city life, including hyenas and venomous snakes.

New York City is among the few jurisdictions in the country that deem beekeeping illegal, lumping the honeybee together with hyenas, tarantulas, cobras, dingoes and other animals considered too dangerous or venomous for city life. But the honeybee’s bad rap — and the days of urban beekeepers being outlaws — may soon be over.

I think honey is a great topping for a lot of things. Being able to get my hands on it homemade (in NYC of all places) will be great.

vivi

I don’t know about NYC but the honey of Paris is famous for its high quality and for being the most pesticide-free of all honey produced in France.

Gilberti

I know very little of bee keeping, mind you, but is it such a good idea to be handling a hive segment like that without gloves and a net hat?

rdarlington.myopenid.com

It’s pretty safe. Most beekeepers do not use gloves because you lose your sense of touch just enough to be dangerous. If you crush a bee or two, they release a pheromone that causes their hivemates to go into attack mode. Going without gloves makes it easier to prevent that. Bees are not 100% predictable though and sometimes they have bad days so you should generally still wear a veil to protect yourself.

ToddW

It is also good PR. It is hard to argue bees are not dangerous when you have to amour up to handle them. Conversely, if you are sitting there next to a thousand of them with no equipment, it demonstrates that these little things mat not be as dangerous as people thought.